So you’re in business – congratulations! Now what? Just because you’re in business doesn’t mean customers immediately flock to your door. People can’t purchase your product or request your services if they don’t even know your business exists.
You have to take action and take concrete steps towards getting the word out about your new business. This is the fundamental purpose of marketing. There are many marketing options available to nonprofits, freelancers, and small business owners in this modern digital era. There are traditional marketing methods such as direct mail, handing out your business card, advertising on the radio or in print – plus of course there will never be a substitute for in-person networking.
And now, thanks to the internet, entrepreneurs have so many new avenues available to them for marketing their business! (Isn’t this a great era to be alive in?!)
Let’s dive into one of the best modern marketing avenues for enterprising folks like you and me – creating a website.
Fine… so what can a website do to help my business or nonprofit (you may ask)?
Keep reading to learn a little more about just some of the exciting possibilities that a website can open up for you and your business!
A website can…
#1) …
help you reach the segment of the population that is not yet using social media.
Believe it or not there is still an entire part of the population that is not yet on Facebook or any other social media platform. So be careful if you are relying solely on Facebook (or Instagram, etc.) for your online presence. Some people might not have the time to bother with the treadmill of Facebook posts whizzing by their eyes on a daily basis. Perhaps others might members of an older segment of the population that might not be as open to new technology, such as my father (who is 87). Then there are people like my sister, all three of my brothers, my brother-in-law and sister-in-law. Social media is non-existent in their lives. My take on this is that they are simply private people who don’t want to put their information out on social platforms for others to see. While they’re all fairly young, they have yet to jump on board the social media train.
So how can business owners reach this segment of the population?
through a website.
Nearly everybody does at least own a computer in this day and age, and knows how to cruise around the web (except for my 87 year old dad!) The basic internet is free, it’s easy, you don’t have to sign up for it and you don’t need to remember to check it every day. It’s just there when you need it.
#2) …
provide a way for you to sell your products or services to a wider audience.
Whether you are a massage therapist, dentist, mechanic or pretty much anything else – you can not only reach more potential customers through a website, but you can also deepen your relationship with your existing customers. People can book appointments online, cancel them or reschedule them. Customers can sign up for your newsletter and alerts and register for events. They can book a conference room or search through your catalog of offerings (and much more). If you are building a site inside a Web Content Management System (CMS) there are many different options and plugins available for you.
If you sell a product through a website you can market it to a global audience, or you can limit your potential customer base to a specific country or region. If your site is built in the WordPress CMS, there are excellent options for setting up an online store, such as installing the WooCommerce shopping platform. There are also several different plugins – many that are free – that will handle your shipping needs.
#3)
…help to reduce the workload for your staff.
So many repetitive and/or time-consuming tasks can be automated through a website. Certain tasks such as booking appointments or conference rooms, registering for events and managing schedules are made much easier online. I personally have used and LOVE the Events Calendar WordPress plugin by Modern Tribe. I paired this plugin with the Registrations for the Events Calendar plugin by Roundup WP. Both of these WordPress plugins come with many excellent features – even in their free versions.
Automating (or putting online) certain repeated tasks can free up your staff and management to concentrate on other things, and they will spend less time on the phone too. Something that a lot of businesses do is offer incentives and coupons if their customers will switch to an online account. Another option is to ask customers to fill out online surveys for a small reward or incentive.
For large enterprises a website can be an indispensable tool in their operations. Companies can order parts online, enable customers to sign up for insurance, and house extensive customer information in databases. This information can easily and quickly be searched, sorted, retrieved and distributed.
One of my sisters-in-law recently told me that she would not even consider a restaurant if she wasn’t able to order her food ahead of time through her mobile phone. Again – this type of taking orders can free up your management and staff for other tasks and help you to reach a wider customer base.
#4)
…open the door for you to make money through blogging, sales funnels, digital products and email subscribers.
You can expand your static website by adding an entire blog section – or your business website can be the blog itself. Either way, a blog can add an exciting new dimension to your business. Through blogging you can connect with your audience and customers on a richer and more personal level. Add a clear CTA (“call to action”) or two to let your audience know what you would like them to do. This is basically a link or button reading something to the effect of “learn about xyx here” or “contact us for a free consultation”, to entice your readers to explore your website further. It is preferable that a CTA is visible from every page of your site, perhaps at the very top of the screen near the main navigation bar.
Another option is to create a downloadable digital product that users can access by entering their email address into a simple form. Once they submit the form you can present them with some type of landing page where they can download your digital product, or you can provide them that link directly through email. If your product, service, advice or info is valuable to your readers they will enjoy hearing from you regularly through an email newsletter. You can keep in touch and even field questions from your readers, and with enough persistence and great content it is possible to gather a loyal following.
#5)
…help you sell online courses and training materials.
If you are a teacher or just have some valuable information, education or background that you would like to share with others, a great option is to create an online course. Not too many years ago creating your own course was a long, arduous process. Now just about anybody can do this thanks to advances in learning technology. An online course could be anything from a downloadable PDF (for example) that you create yourself out of a Word document, to a full-blown interactive course. Udemy, Teachable, Thinkific and Course Cats (for WordPress) are just a few of the online course platforms and plugins available.
If you would like to combine modern with traditional teaching methods, one option is to give your students the ability to sign up online for your in-person classes. On a more simple level you could always ask your students to fill out a form on your website requesting for you to send them your course materials through the mail.
#6) …
increase your level of incoming donations.
Another great thing about this modern digital age we’re living in is the ability to give money easily and quickly online. It has never been easier to donate to charities and other nonprofits, and a website can play a critical role in facilitating this process.
You can either set up the ability for people to donate directly on your website through a plug-in such as Charitable (for WordPress), or you can hook up your website to a third-party donation service that will handle most of the details for you. Donorbox, Snowball, and Fundly are a few great examples of online donation platforms, and they are all free to use up to a certain donation level. For example, using Donorbox’s platform is free until the amount of monthly donations you’re receiving exceeds $1,000. I have used Donorbox in my work with nonprofit clients, and I found it super easy to set up and implement.
Most online giving platforms give you the option to set up separate, distinct fundraising campaigns and link to each of them from your website. For added flexibility you can choose to have each campaigns’ donation form keep users on your website when they donate, or you can route them to a third-party platform to complete that process.
CLOSING
There are many different ways to market your business and all can be effective – but the best marketing tool is one that compliments and assists all other methods:
Create a website!
If you’re thinking about starting a blog or creating a new website and have chosen to build it on the WordPress platform, then you should consider a WordPress theme that is truly versatile and fun to work with: Divi from Elegant Themes.
I have built a few websites using Divi and had a great time working with it! I felt like this theme suited my work style, with the bright colors, easy to understand interface, extensive options and highly visual setup. By visual I mean you don’t need to know much code at all to create a blog or website using Divi, because of the Divi Visual Editor.
Divi has all of the features mentioned in this article – and much more! Divi’s offerings, features and add-ons are so extensive that it’s actually a whole website-building platform and an all-out web design system!
For information about the key ingredients that should make up any website, check out this article.
How has having a website helped you with your business or nonprofit? What features were most effective in attracting new customers or clients? Please share your experience in the comments section below (and please also share this article if you liked it) 🙂
